You're All I Have
by If I Could I Wouldn't
Summary: AU: She wanted so badly to believe that she wasn't crazy; that she was completely and utterly sane, but when you have ice powers and your best friend happens to be invisible to everyone, the plan doesn't really work all that well. Unless shouting into thin air is classed as a good sign, especially when you can see something there that no one else can.
1. Courage

_**Disclaimer: I don't own any characters, quotes, songs or references that I may use in this writing; they all belong to the original owner. Any ideas of my own (take the plot for instance) and other characters that I have created belong to me.**_

_**So, I'm trying something different, just dabbling in something that isn't TMI.**_

_**Hints of Elsanna, if you squint, really, really hard.**_

_**Title: **__You're All I Have – Coldplay_

It had started when her parents had died.

At the time she had been sitting on one of the many seats situated around the library and Anna had been sitting on the one opposite her, directly in front of the door and in full view of the servant that had come in.

She had brushed it off, saying that she was just puzzling over something and needed to go over the facts – but out loud. The boy hadn't looked like he'd believed her, as soon as she'd dismissed him he'd scurried out without a look back, he was so scared in fact that he'd dropped the paper the message had been written on before he'd had the chance to hand it to her probably.

That was when Elsa had asked the other girl, the one that the servant hadn't been able to see, why he didn't know she was there. Anna had shrugged and had said some noncommittal comment about the boy not being the right kind and then had hurriedly switched the topic to the weather, saying how nice it was to be snowing.

Elsa had shrugged, to busy thinking about how the boy hadn't seen someone when she was right in front of him only to be interrupted by a warm hand gently squeezing hers.

"It's fine, Elsa. You're just special."

They didn't talk about the incident again.

…

When she had locked herself in her room when she'd almost lost control of her powers Anna had also been there. She had seemingly appeared out of nowhere, just as she always did, and had told Elsa to snap out of it and stop worrying about it so much.

"There's only so much damage you can do with ice." She had said, "not nearly as much as you could do if you had fire powers."

Elsa had stared at the strawberry-blondes blue eyes for a second, before agreeing that yes, fire would be much worse to have control over, or as the case was, no control. With ice you could freeze and nip at people's skins but with fire, you could scar their skin and turn them into ashes in seconds, and that was far worse than giving someone a cold.

From then on Anna and Elsa would spend their nights in her room, Anna in awe of the magical displays that Elsa would show her, always eager to impress her invisible friend. Each week they would try to see how far her powers could stretch and Anna never once complained when it got to cold, she would only do that when Elsa sunk back into self-loathing if something went wrong.

Each time that happened, Anna would smile, show her that no one had got hurt and offer a warm hand to hold so that she could freeze it. It always worked.

…

Elsa could only remember one time when she really got angry at Anna. Unsurprisingly it was a few days after the incident with the young servant boy.

She had been reading in bed, carefully turning the pages and reading every word of the text when suddenly Anna had been sitting next to her. Like she had been sitting there all the time but she hadn't.

Elsa had jumped up and off the mattress, a small scream coming from her lips as her best friend – and only friend – looked at her in puzzlement, head tilted slightly to the side.

"What's wrong?"

The question sent a small stab of guilt through the blonde-haired girl, at the concern in the tone and the worry in her eyes but she had to ask, she had to. "Why are you here?"

Anna's eyes widened, her lips parting ever so slightly and she could see the hurt in her blue eyes, much softer then the ice that seemed to have permeated hers. "Why wouldn't I be here?"

"How come I can see you and hear you and everybody else can't. I must be going mad to think that you are real, and that you are actually here."

"Elsa-"

She cut her off. "No, Anna. Can't you see what you're doing to me? Just go, get out of my head, go away." She had hoped that because she was something that she herself had made up that she should be able to control her, stop herself from seeing her, from hearing her.

But all that fell apart when she felt Anna's hands gently take the book out of her hands, which gripped it with much more force than necessary, and envelop the older girl in a hug.

"Don't worry Elsa, I'm actually here," Anna's lips moved closer to her ear as the redheaded girls voice dropped, "you have magic you see, that's they can't see me."

Thinking back on it Elsa wasn't really mad, just scared.

…

It was two years later that the rumours started, that the Princess was going mad. People would catch her having conversations to thin air and then responding like she got some sort of answer, or when they were talking to her, sometimes her eyes would fix on something other than them, something that they couldn't see, and a small smile would make it to her lips.

Everyone had their theories, ranging from her being an evil witch or that she was just plain crazy but what was painfully obvious to the small group of servants that were in the same social circles that something was wrong with Elsa.

When Elsa found out she sent all but her most trusted servants away, the ones that had their suspicions but were sure that she was still sane – for the most part.

And who else would have told her about the whispered confessions of the group other than Anna, who had suddenly burst through her door – which Elsa told herself was further proof that Anna was indeed real – and had told her in-between gasps that people thought that she was suffering from some sort of mental illness.

Elsa immediately agreed with them, the doubts that had clouded her since the death of her parents coming back full force. She was losing her mind to something nobody else knew about, to something as innocent and harmless as another person that no one had ever seen or heard, even when she was standing before their very eyes.

The soft sound off Anna's voice only made her realise then that she had been trembling slightly, as if she was cold, but it had been such a long time since that had ever happened.

"Elsa, are you alright." Her friend came closer. "You don't believe them do you?"

She didn't say anything.

"Oh, Elsa." And Anna wrapped her arms around her, and Elsa told herself that if she were truly insane then she would see something much worse than this, after all, the years of being told her powers were to be concealed had led to her young mind thinking up the worst possible scenario, and all were worse than this.

…

It was in the times when she convinced herself that Anna wasn't real that she felt cold, actually cold.

The soft-blue-eyed girl would appear, all smiles and cheer and be faced with a person that would calmly, ever so calmly, ask her to leave her to her own thoughts. It wasn't like the first time, which had been done in an act of fear, this was measured, controlled, thought through and Anna had no choice but to leave, because Elsa wanted her to.

After, Elsa would curl into a ball and cry, already feeling the loss of the other girl's presence and the light she brought to the icy world she had built up around herself. Sometimes she lasted weeks, sometimes only hours, but no matter what, Elsa always wanted Anna back, and when she called Anna would come.

Each time she would arrive with her lips upturned and her hands outstretched and each time Elsa would take them and promise never to do it again.

She stopped counting how many times she had broken it in the three years she had known the unseen girl, knowing that if she did, it would break her heart that she could do that over and over, even when she said she wouldn't.

…

It was on her coronation day that Elsa finally accepted that no matter what, Anna would always be with her.

She went to put on her gloves but was stopped with a "you don't need them, you've shown me that." She had looked at companion, who was standing by the window looking out, not even having to check to see if Elsa had gone to put on her gloves, but knowing that she would.

A few moments of silence. "Isn't it amazing? The gates are finally open."

She could only nod as Anna stood blissfully in the sunlight, thinking that it was weird that she had never seen Anna in that kind of light, normally it was by the glow of her ice, or the flickering fire of the candles.

"I promise to keep them that way." The answering squeal of delight and the hug that she was almost knocked down with was enough to know that the decision had been the right one.

Maybe they might even be able to find someone who could see Anna to.

…

It didn't take long for her to think back on her decision about Anna; it was when she was standing before an entire crowd of people, all dancing and having fun. One of them, the Duke of someplace, had asked her to dance and her first instinct was to offer Anna up as a replacement for herself. The sentence had just started to cross her lips when she remembered.

Anna shouldn't exist, couldn't exist, but here she was, standing behind her, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder with a touch akin to fire, while making some joke about his title. And for once Elsa didn't mind if she was going mad, because if this was what it felt like, like home and comfort and having someone to share something with, she welcomed it.

_**So…?**_

_**What do you think?**_

_**Snow.**_


	2. Conductor

_**Disclaimer: I don't own any characters, quotes, songs or references that I may use in this writing; they all belong to the original owner. Any ideas of my own (take the plot for instance) and other characters that I have created belong to me.**_

_**Chapter Title: **__Conductor – We Were Promised Jetpacks_

The young boy wasn't looking at her. That was the first thing she thought she had when she saw him standing by the wall holding what looked to be like small snacks for the people invited to the coronation ball.

He was staring at something that was past her, or rather at someone who was standing by her shoulder, talking animatedly about all the guests that had appeared and how her _best friend _was finally queen.

The boy didn't even try to hide his staring, instead the gangly blonde was gawking at the red-head, he didn't seem to notice that he was being watched as well, and by someone who was far more discrete in analysing what he was doing.

Elsa watched him as he pinched himself, once, twice, then a third time, checking to see if he was actually seeing what he was – or what he thought he was. She didn't know what must be going through his head, no one acknowledged the person he was looking at, even the person she was seemly talking to.

He must think he was going mad.

And that was all the proof Elsa needed to finally, finally convince her she wasn't. Her mind flashed back to all the times that Anna had told her she wasn't, or when she held her hand and wiped away her tears, or the suspicious glances she would get when she said that she didn't knock over that expensive decoration and that it had been like that when she got there.

By the time she has worked up enough courage to go to him – to tell him he wasn't seeing things and that she had grown up with the person beside her for the last three years – he was gone. Had disappeared while she thought of the days filled with endless talking and almost-but-not-quite panic attacks.

He was gone, and maybe she had just made him up as well, it wouldn't be that insane. Elsa looked back over the crowd of people dancing and singing and having fun, then at Anna's hopeful face when she asked Elsa is she would dance for her and she didn't know how she would tell her what she had seen.

That was the first thing in those three long years that Elsa hadn't told Anna something, or that Anna hadn't been there to witness, and somehow it made her feel worse than if she had.

…

Hans was the next one. He had come a year after the ball, wanting her to sign something to do with a trade agreement with the Southern Isles. He had been lucky they had been in her office at the time, otherwise she would have had to lie and Elsa couldn't lie. She ran from her problems, hid from them, never giving herself a chance to ever face them head on and consequently couldn't get anyone to believe her on anything false.

They had been talking over her desk, a large mahogany piece, and his eyes had kept flicking to the chair in the corner of the room, slightly angled to face Elsa and with the back to the scrolls neatly lined up on wooden shelves. It was also where Anna was sitting, eyes drooping with every exchange of numbers said, and this is what made her nervous. Why was he so fascinated with the chair that he had to ask her to repeat what she had just told him?

It was only after he had asked her to repeat the same sentence four times over that she finally cracked. "What are you staring at?" Her voice had been quiet and had he not been so surprised by the sudden change of tone he probably would have continued started to drool on the table.

As it was he straightened up, nodding his head to Anna, who was now fully alert and looking at Hans through narrowed eyes.

"I was just wondering when you were going to introduce me to this," he paused, looking for an adequate word he could use, "fine lady?"

It was the way he almost purred the word that really set Elsa on edge and ultimately told her not to trust the prince before her. His brown eyes, which had been a soft, warm brown were now cold and hard, barely concealing a seething anger, and his smile was forced, but at the same time, much too happy for her liking. She didn't like him in that moment, not at all, but still – he could see Anna, something no one else could do.

"That's Anna, she doesn't speak." Elsa kept her blue eyes on Hans, feeling the sharp glare of the person sitting behind her, and the creak of wood as her friend inched forward a bit to get a better look at the prince.

Hans looked at her then, and the shiver ran up her spine setting her on edge. Suddenly, the trading agreement didn't seem so good, not at all.

Frost started to creep under the table's surface, ever so slowly making its way towards Hans, and Elsa did everything to try to stop it. Normally Anna would be here by now, by he could see her and she couldn't. She missed the warm hand on her shoulder already.

He stood up, offering both of them a curt nod, then stiffly walked out the room, not offering an explanation why he had left, or even a sorry that he had and Elsa was to occupied of stopping herself from freezing the whole castle that she didn't care right then.

Anna was by her side immediately. "Hey, Elsa. It's fine, he'd gone now. You can let it go." And the magic that was just under her skin, thrumming with the need to _get out_ was finally granted its wish and the office – which had once been a warm room with all her books lined neatly in shelves and a fireplace next to the desk – was now covered in a fine layer of snow. But it was good, because she had controlled it, and Anna had been there to help, like she always was, like she had promised she would be.

The next day, it was reported that the Prince of the Southern Isles by the name of Hans had killed one of his brothers and was not to be trusted. The very same day, Hans had left, but when Elsa went to his rooms she thought she smelt what seemed to be burning, like someone had started a fire.

…

The girl they had found in the woods, calling out aimlessly for Eugene, had a lot of hair, an extraordinary amount, trailing past her into the woods and going on for at least another forty foot.

At the time she had been lying on the ground, whispering the name over and over, cradling what seemed to be an old satchel in her hands. When they tried to take it from her she had shrunk back on herself, protecting it with her body, and the murmuring became more frantic.

"_Eugene, Eugene." _She looked up. "Have you seen Eugene? He was right there…" Each time she pointed it was in a different place, and Elsa got the feeling that she had been here a very long time... So long she had made up her own fantasies and had started to believe them.

It didn't stop her from telling the guards who had crowded around the poor girl to patrol the rest of the woods and that she would be fine and then taking the small, delicate palm of the blonde in her own and asking her who Eugene was.

"Oh, Eugene," the girl smiled, "he saved me, and then we went on an adventure but the bad guys came and he said he would be right back. He will come back right?" Her lips quivered, her eyes seemed so hopeful that Elsa couldn't bring herself to say that Eugene wasn't coming back, was never coming back.

"Yeah, he will." And that smile, she was sure that men would fight over it, to see it grace her features and Elsa decided that Eugene must have been a very lucky guy. "What's your name?"

Big green eyed stared at her a second, "Rapunzel."

"And how old are you Rapunzel?"

"Eighteen. We were on the way back to see find my parents since I'm the Lost Princess, but then Eugene had to fight off the bad guys, so I'm waiting for him to come back. He shouldn't be long now, and then I can meet my parents, you can come to if you'd like."

If Elsa remembered correctly the lost princess had disappeared twenty-one years ago.

"Rapunzel-"

"Who's that?" She was pointing at Anna and Anna was staring at her, trying to fight off tears and Elsa guessed she had heard everything, absolutely everything and it was breaking her heart to see this girl, so naïve of the world and experiencing it in all of its cruelty.

She stepped forward, brushing a stray lock of hair behind her ear. "I'm Anna."

"I'm Rapunzel."

"I know." The words seemed to come out of Anna's mouth without realising and she hastened to correct her mistake but Rapunzel seemed fine with it, going off about Eugene again but something was different this time. Something about magic hair.

"Wait, your hair heals people?" Anna managed to get out and Rapunzel nodded, hauling it so that a pile sat on her knee.

"I can show you-"

Elsa stopped her, placing her cool hands on the younger girls, which when she thought about it seemed to be unnaturally hot to the touch, and not like Anna's, it felt like she was burning up, like she had been born of the sun.

Rapunzel didn't care that she didn't have to show her gift and went back to watching the trees intently, waiting for someone who would never come.

…

She was supposed to be asleep, but she wasn't. She was thinking about how the Princess of Corona had recently been staying in the room across from her and, how, when they did notify the king and queen to see if this was the princess after all, they had rushed here and found her half mad. But still they had thanked her and taken the girl, who insisted she was only eighteen years of age, away back to their home.

But not before she had cut off all her hair in a fit a rage, turning the golden blonde into a chocolate brown, and when she tried her magic again, when Anna had fallen and managed to cut herself all down her arm, it hadn't worked.

Elsa was thinking about how she could have been that person, that if Anna had disappeared and hadn't come back, she might be the one that kept on whispering her name and refused to believe that any time had passed since she had last seen her.

She could easily lose her mind, and she might not even care.

The temperature dropped as the thought manifested and grew, occupying all of her thoughts.

Anna appeared, dropping down next to her on the bed, watching as each of her breaths took off and formed meaningless shapes as she exhaled. "What's wrong Elsa?"

Elsa didn't say anything for a moment, instead reaching her hand across the covers of her bed so that they were laced with the younger girls. "Rapunzel."

"Ah." She didn't offer up anything else, there wasn't anything to say about the princess. She waited, since she knew that the other girl wanted to say more, and it came.

"She's been lost for years and when she got back, she wasn't even there to really acknowledge it." She turned to Anna, frowning slightly. "Can you stay here tonight; I don't want to be alone."

And all Anna did was nod as Elsa lay down to sleep, smiling slightly as she watched her doze off.

…

Kristoff. He was called Kristoff and apparently he had been living with trolls since he was little.

"_Yeah, I live with trolls; they also make pretty good matchmakers as well. They like it when I call them love experts; they say it makes them sound important."_

That was also why they were here now, because being trolls and love experts weren't enough – they also had to have magic and had an extensive knowledge in all things magic.

Elsa didn't want to get her hopes up, but the smile on Anna's face at _finally _being _seen _by someone other than the Queen was contagious and she couldn't help but try to have faith in the trolls. Maybe they could help, maybe they could help Anna, maybe then Anna could walk around the halls and actually feel like she was there, instead of a ghost.

She wanted that for Anna, for her to be happy, because if Anna was happy, then so as she, and that was enough.

…

Magic, Anna was magic.

That was all the trolls could say, it was all the information they would give. Elsa knew they wanted to say more, she also knew that they wouldn't say it with Anna around.

She looked over at Kristoff, eyes flicking to Anna and then the woods. He nodded once, understanding.

The redhead leapt at the chance to explore, having never been out the castle since she had first appeared, but still before she went Anna went over to Elsa and wrapped her in a hug, smothering her in her body warmth. "It's going to be fine Elsa; I know you want to learn more about your powers."

Elsa hadn't thought about her powers in a long while, and the guilt rose up threatening to make her hold onto Anna and never let go, whispering how sorry she was that she had led her to believe that she was as selfish to wanting her gone so she could talk about _herself._

Anna left still, but not before smiling that heart-breaking smile of hers, and walked off into the woods with Kristoff, already checking out all the nature with a critical eye.

Nobody talked for the next five minutes as she collected herself, just knowing that the next news wasn't going to be good, not at all. She desperately wanted Anna to be good, because Anna was good and didn't deserve to be anything less – even with her temper, and her clumsiness and her willingness to believe everything that was told to her.

"What is she?"

The trolls were silent for a minute before the largest and the wisest one spoke, "she is magic."

She didn't want to hear that answer, she'd heard that answer, and by the fact that anyone that could see her _was_ magic or at least _believed_ in magic hinted at what was now obvious. "I know that."

"Then why did you come to us?"

"Because she can't just be magic… she's… she's Anna as well. How can she be magic and Anna?"

The shrugging of the troll shoulders, rock on rock, gave off a grinding sound, making her wince slightly. "She is magic and she is Anna. She is both."

And it wasn't enough. "I-I don't care about magic, I don't care about mine. Just tell me… was she always Anna?"

Nothing moved; nothing made any sound, not even the wind; it was like the whole clearing, the whole damn world, was waiting for the answer.

"No."

Elsa only needed to ask one more question, but hearing that Anna had not always been Anna, and that she was something but not that very same something, it stopped her for a few second, letting the weight of the words take effect. She still asked her question. "Is there a way, anyway, that she can become… seen… again?"

It was worth it in the end, to hear the last words spoken to her in a way that would surely mean the world to Anna, even if she had never explicitly said she wanted to be seen. She knew she did, she wanted to laugh with the children, have a full conversation with a stranger, be able to say all the clever and witty comments she said under her breath to someone's face. She wanted to help Elsa, and being _human _would so that.

"Yes, it is possible. Good luck."

_**I really shouldn't have given it such an open ending but I'll probably get back to it, I'm interested in my own idea. And I explained what Anna was… kind of. Go think on that.**_

_**Snow.**_


	3. Comforting Sounds

_**Disclaimer: I don't own any characters, quotes, songs or references that I may use in this writing; they all belong to the original owner. Any ideas of my own (take the plot for instance) and other characters that I have created belong to me.**_

_**Chapter title: **__Comforting Sounds - Birdy_

She knows more about magic than most, enough to know that it is as uncontrollable as a tempest, that it crashes and shifts, running out of your fingers like water before leaping right back into them.

Magic isn't something you could just play with, it takes power and concentration to master it and even after that, to stop using it would be near impossible. After your first taste of what it could bring it would drag you into its misty depths, encompassing you, surrounding you.

Magic wasn't just one thing, it shifted and moved and flowed. It never stayed in one place, instead choosing to continue on.

The events, the ones no one could explain, it was that, and the more spectacular ones, the ones that people hailed and cried over – it was that as well.

It was only in the most extreme cases that it could ever belong to one person, and even then, Elsa couldn't stop it from escaping when her emotions shifted too fast, or the fear dug in with its sharp claws.

To know that it had stopped, created, then stayed with one person was like asking gravity to shift, it was a useless and impossible to comprehend concept. At least, to Elsa it was. But still the evidence was right in front of her.

And she would be damned it Anna wasn't meant to be.

This left her with one secret she dared not tell her friend, a mission to find out how to change said friend into something that didn't rely on an impossible force and the question of how Anna was what she was.

She didn't particularly care for the last one, what was the answer worth to that question when all that mattered was giving the redhead the one thing she wanted.

…

The search wasn't going well. She stayed up late at night, when Anna was asleep next to her, using a candle to read the old novels she had dragged from the forgotten corners of the library.

None of them offered anything useful; they contained information on elemental magic, to the supposed origins of magic. It even had a composed list of the famous magic users. But nothing was on invisible people made of magic.

Thinking of it like that she understood why nobody would broach on the topic. It sounded crazy, but Elsa was past that, unless the rest of the world was as mad as her she couldn't tell herself there was something wrong with her mind.

Maybe it would have been easier if there was…

She shoved the thought to the back of her mind, Anna wouldn't like it if she thought like that, she would tell her that it wouldn't because she was beautiful and didn't deserve to treat herself like this. And Elsa would believe her, because she always believed her. It wouldn't be surprising if she had fallen for a dozen lies either, though she was sure the younger girl wouldn't lie to her, what would she gain from it?

She ended the idea before it began, if she didn't she might just end up telling herself that Anna was only here to pray on her weakness' and only wanted Elsa so that she could be seen. She didn't think she could handle that if she ended up thinking it was true.

If it weren't for Anna…

Elsa didn't want to think about it, all the things that could have been; she has to think about the now: how she's going to save her friend and how she really needs to read more if she's ever going to find anything useful.

She wakes up to Anna asking about the dark shadows under her eyes.

…

It takes two months to find the answer she wants. It's only mentioned in passing, a small paragraph inside one talking about magical entities.

_Some have reported having seen people, who no one had been able to see. These people have all been said to have magic or been exposed to it for long periods of time. The claims, however, where never followed up upon since there was no evidence that these 'invisible people' even existed apart from the cries of people commonly called mad. It is believed that these sightings are actually people who have died that had magic in their earlier lives and the magic they held kept them protected from their souls to be taken by the magic that was bestowed on them. These sighting were later called the Intemerata (meaning untouchable in Latin) Sightings. _

The rest went on the say about the process of someone's soul being returned back to the energy that it was made from, but Elsa wasn't reading on. The Intemerata Sightings… she had a name now.

Names, her father had taught her, were powerful.

…

If he found the request confusing or strange he shows no sign of it, instead, he bows his head slightly and heads into the small room at the back of his shop.

Elsa glanced around her, taking in the strange mangled shapes hanging from threads and the various vials of disgusting liquid. Some are a murky green colour, others choosing to blend in with the mashes outside whole others, are either glowing or seemingly sucking in any light it presence reaches.

She shivers, not wanting to be here any longer than necessary, but then, any amount of time is what she would give to finding more information on the _Intemerata Sightings, _it would be worth it if the information she had discovered had been correct in its findings.

It only takes her seconds to figure out something is wrong, the air shifts and her magic, a great beast inside of her, floods through her veins, rushing like fire, but cooling like ice.

The sharp needle point that touches the back of her neck is what confirms her suspicions. Somehow, she had done something wrong, and that means death – even to the Queen by which they follow her laws.

"What do you want?" His voice is low, sounding as if it's been scrapped across rocks. It rises and caves in all the wrong places and creates a distinctly unpleasant texture to the hearing. Most likely this aided him in his job; to kill.

Elsa takes a deep breath, steadying her breathing, and trying to not let the fear consume her.

She had been told that fear will be her greatest enemy. This time, by the trolls.

The man speaks up again, irritation creeping into his tone. "Answer me. What do you want with the _Intemerata?" _

When she feels the steal of the arrow tip dig into her skin her magic, which she had so carefully controlled before, goes wild, demanding to let Hell be unleashed upon the man that dares try and harm it. And just this time, she lets it. How else would she escape?

Ice creeps up the crossbow the man was holding to her skin, creeping across the fragile wood until it touches the man's hands, freezing them in place. He jerked, tripping over a discarded plank on the floor and landing on the flat of his back.

The ice kept creeping upwards, crawling across his leather clothing and spreading its icy fingertips to reach his face. It all ends when it freezes his insides, not even making his suffer the agony of having a frozen heart, but rather, stopping everything at once. Ice in his blood, ice in his brain, ice trying to be pumped by a hardly beating heart.

He didn't have a chance.

And the small scripture left on the desk by the old man running the shop was her reward. For Elsa knew, with only having a small glace at the neatly inked words that this, surely, would save Anna and breathe life back into her ghostly frame.

…

She had to learn Latin.

When she told Anna, the most the younger girl did was look at her oddly, because why on earth would someone want to learn such a language that wasn't used except by old scholars and people who thought they were smart.

Her friend helped anyway, and seemed to be better at grasping the language then the one trying to learn it. Maybe because Anna knew it when she wasn't Anna, or because the most common form of channelling magic was through speech. Whatever it was, it helped Elsa, and through her, Anna.

She still hadn't told her friend, she didn't intend to until everything was perfect, she would just have to hope that when the time came the redhead wouldn't start shouting at her from keeping it from her. Elsa didn't think she would, Anna would make up a dozen excuses in her head to try and compensate to _why _she had done what she had done.

Elsa didn't want her to know the real reason, the selfishness of her actions of not wanting to give hope to the hopeless. Though she guessed that Anna would find out, and then not say anything at all.

…

She had handled it well, all squeals and excitements. She'd insisted that they prank as many people as they could, just to remember what it felt like to have a good view of someone rather than having to hide.

A man's food disappeared.

Chocolate went missing from the kitchens.

A particularly ugly painting was ruined.

A horse somehow made its way into the castle.

It was strange, as people would say later in their lives, it was almost as if you could hear laughter when you stumbled upon these discoveries, but no one else was there, at least, of what they could see.

…

When it came to recite the ritual. Elsa was nervous; the words couldn't be misspoken, clipped or stumbled upon. Everything had to be perfect, otherwise something bad would happen.

She couldn't do that.

Anna saw the shaking hands, and the irregular breaths, she stroked the blondes hair, comforted her that even if it didn't work they still had each other. "Hey Elsa. I'll be right here, I'm not going anywhere."

And Elsa believed her, not knowing the full extent of the spell she was casting, because when she finished Anna was nowhere to be seen and she was truly alone.

…

"Queen Elsa, there is a visitor for you, she told us that she is part of the house."

Elsa's eyes flickered to the servant standing nervously by the wall, "let them in." Someone was lying, but to what means? Might as well find out personally. It wasn't like she couldn't protect herself.

The man nodded his head, moving to allow the stranger to enter her office. The figure was hooded, clothed, but clothed in the royal garments of the Arendelle household. It was odd; she couldn't remember anyone being in possession of such fine clothes that belonged to the castle. Only someone of high status, a princess for example, would ever be in possession of such a thing.

"Why do you come here?"

The person shifted for a few seconds, before raising slim fingers to gently lower the hood.

The sharp intake of breath was the only noise that could be heard. Then: "Anna?"

Anna smiled, the same smile she'd given her a year ago. "Hi Elsa."

_**The end.**_

_**Snow.**_


End file.
